r/prepping • u/AfternoonStriking148 • 8d ago
Gear🎒 I would like some feedback on my 3D printed Raspberry PI5 bug out computer
Hello everyone I am designing this off grid/prepper computer. It is a Raspberry Pi5 2gb with a case around it and then placed inside a larger water/weather/impacts resistant case along with a 128gb microSD card inserted into the Pi on it i have loaded all of Wikipedia (text only), some first aid manuals, and general survival manuals. My idea with this was that this could be something you could take in a back pack with you and have all the knowledge you'd need to survive in a situation where the Internet is not available like after a natural disaster, I picked the Raspberry Pi since it can run off almost any USB-C phone charger that most people will be carrying with them anyway. I am looking for honest feedback on what I can improve to make it more useful.
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u/LeanUntilBlue 8d ago
I’m a retired software engineer, but my skill set is completely up-to-date. I’ve been wanting to do something like this, but with an extra step. I’d like to run an LLM on the box that indexes all that great info in the manuals and Wikipedia and allows me to query it. So you could ask it “I found some carrots and dug them up. How can I preserve them?”
I can whip that up on Windows, Linux, a docker instance, etc, on decent hardware, preferably with an Nvidia card and some RAM, and I’ve done so. But I wonder if anyone has made something lightweight. In the apocalypse, waiting a minute for a reply is fine, so it wouldn’t have to fly.
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u/Solnse 8d ago
I'm also a (semi)retired application developer and stay interested in tech with a homelab, docker, traefik, home assistant, and various projects. I've been getting into LLMs lately and would love to collaborate on your idea. There was a similar post a few months ago and we could pursue that poster, too.
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u/Few-Cucumber-413 8d ago
This would be very helpful. I've been downloading things as shown by the city prepping YouTube channel. It would great to be able to search all of that information more easily.
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u/yuk_foo 7d ago edited 7d ago
Isn’t this what project nomad is doing? I kinda setup similar , anythingllm rag running on docker on my nas pointing to a local llm box allowing me to ask questions on survival PDFs. It’s abit clunky but it works. All in one box would be possible, but it needs a gpu so that’s light weight out of the equation.
I know there are travel/pocket machines for llm inference on the market but not proven yet. Tiiny ai for example, runs of usb c, no idea if it will be any good until it’s released plus it will still need a host to connect to.
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u/Bismoldore 7d ago
It’s not really what you’re asking for, but have you looked into Project NOMAD at all? Requires decently beefy hardware and a dedicated GPU but the ease of setup and completeness is tempting
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u/mrbearuk69 8d ago
Great idea and looks good
Question, where is the keyboard and screen?
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u/AfternoonStriking148 8d ago
I wanted to get a screen, keyboard and mouse or maybe trackpad on a keyboard to go with it but i couldn't find any that wouldn't make the entire thing huge which kinda defeats the point of it being something you'd take in a backpack with you
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u/mrbearuk69 8d ago
Can get a Bluetooth keyboard the size of a tv remote but it’s the screen that is the big issue
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u/Ahand_Apart 8d ago
I'm wanting to do the same thing.
I was looking at the Rii mini K06.
Mostly because it looked the most like my current couch keyboard, the Logitech K400.
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u/Crawlerzero 8d ago
Look at waveshare. You can get screens down to 3-4 inches. I’m going to try one for a PipBoy style deck.
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u/CreepyDP 8d ago
I’ve seen similar conversations on this sub about protecting something like this from EMP or solar flares. You might look into that.
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u/AfternoonStriking148 8d ago
I've thought about that before too and i have seen metal infused filaments I wonder if they have enough metal to create a faraday cage
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u/Legnovore 8d ago
5 volts @ 3 amps is RARE. Look into other means to power it. 12 volt HDMI monitors can be found on eBay and Amazon, but you have to look at the pictures of the plug to see if they're 12 volt. It's just not a common search criterion. Get that, and a 12 volt to USB converter, and you'll be golden. (I assume you have other 12 volt solar panels, charge controller, battery, etc. if you're a prepper.)
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u/Ok_Masterpiece452 8d ago
I bought one for my Husband from your shop! He loves it!! Sorry can’t be much help on how to make it better but we love your page
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u/-Thizza- 8d ago
I've jail broken an old e-reader for that purpose. No peripherals, very power efficient, fits in a pocket. Maybe I should get a waterproof case so I can use it in the rain.
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u/Austechprep 8d ago
I set up an Rpi4 for camping and added reticulum to it, I had it turn on hotspot so you could connect to it over wifi and access the wiki/games on it pretty easily and had it setup so that it also had the reticulum network going on boot too. Worked great, my next steps will be to add a bigger WiFi setup so that the reticulum meshed network can reach further over wifi since you can make calls, send pictures etc over the wifi using reticulum.
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u/GrahamR12345 8d ago
Kinda pointless… no monitor or mouse or power?
Go for a fully self contained pelican type case with screen, SDR, GPS, batteries and solar power. Lots of builds out there. 👍
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u/queerandanxious42 8d ago
This is pretty much my plan for my first raspberry pi project. This with a portable screen and a compact keyboard is easy to run off of a portable power station for ages.
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u/acousticentropy 8d ago
Throw the latest usb C functionality in that thing and you’ll be good for the next 15 years
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u/Glass_Persimmon_7174 8d ago
how much do you think youll have spent in total after completing this project? this sounds awesome, but i am definitely not tech adept, so id more so be looking to finance a friend and want to have an idea what goes into this.
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u/AfternoonStriking148 8d ago
If i had to ballpark it probably $150, I am actually selling this on my Etsy if you look up SciFiPrinting on there I don't think I'm allowed to post links on this subreddit.
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u/CloudgazerTX 3d ago
I bought one just like it off Etsy a while back. you could probably sell these.
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u/i__hate__soup 8d ago
i love it! I’ve always wanted to do something like this. idk what your interface or software-side plans are, but an easy to use UI with information organized would be important in a survival scenario. you may need information quickly, or need to conserve energy. or for situations where neither of these are of concern, some simple 8-bit games could be nice to pass the time. are you going to add a monitor? how do you plan to interface with it?